Rum runners in Bluffton

Jessica Sparks/ Bluffton TodayMitch Brown and Gavin Wright pose with celebrity chef Sallie Ann Robinson during a photo shoot last week. Robinson is helping the project with some rewards for large donors.

The beginnings of Pocotaligo Rum came from a conversation on a boat on the May River.

Gavin Wright, 31, and Mitch Brown, 38, have known each other for only a couple of years, but the pair have a lot in common — including their love for rum.

“We were hanging out on the boat one day, just messing around, and ... we were just shooting the breeze about rum, and then one thing led to another,” Brown said. “Gavin said let’s make it, and I said OK. And then we spent a while trying to figure out how almost insurmountable it would be to make rum properly and legally.”

About a year ago, the men started working on a recipe. Brown and Wright said they chose ingredients from Barbados because of its heritage connection to South Carolina through immigrants from the Barbados colony sent by the Lords Proprietors. The result was a rum made with Barbadian sugar, aged in charred bourbon barrels for six years.

Wright said they chose the name because it was fun to say. The word comes from the Yemassee Indians, supposedly meaning “gathering place.” It’s also the name of a community in Jasper County.

They said they plan to start with the launch of their flagship bottle of rum but then move to other products that will “change the rum industry” including PocoPops, which will be adult popsicles.

“One of our things is we really want this product to be the people’s product and to just get feedback from people about what they want, how they drink it, what they’d like to see in a rum: Whether it’s aged, whether it’s cheaper, how they drink it — mixed, neat,” said Wright. “So we’re really just trying to take that feedback and develop a rum that is ultimately the people’s product that they helped, had a hand in making.”

Once the company is up and running, they plan to partner with the South Carolina Aquarium, giving it 5 percent of proceeds for turtle rescue programs. Wright, who used to volunteer at the Jekyll Island Turtle Center, said they hope to expand to more turtle rescue programs as the company grows.

The first phase for company launch begins Monday, when Wright and Brown start a KickStarter campaign. KickStarter is a website that allows people to request funding for creative projects. Oftentimes, people who donate are given rewards if the project reaches its goal. For Pocotaligo Rum, one of the rewards for larger donation levels includes a special dinner with chef Sallie Ann Robinson, who was recently on the Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.”

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